Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs Richard Stengel will be the featured guest speaker and participate in a panel discussion at the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism at 7:00 p.m. on Monday,

November 2 as part of an event entitled “New Strategies in Defense of Global Press Freedom.” His speech comes on the second anniversary of International Day to End Impunity for Crimes against Journalists, which was adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in 2013. The event will be moderated by Steve Coll, Dean of the Columbia Journalism School.

Selected from a competitive pool of international applicants by an independent faculty review committee, Fisher, Maronkova, and Metzgar will each oversee a substantive research project that will yield at least two outputs, including one publication for the Center’s publication series, CPD Perspectives on Public Diplomacy, during their two-year terms. USC graduate students will be recruited to assist with certain projects in the coming months.

About the 2015-2017 CPD Research Fellows

Ali Fisher is a strategic adviser and author who specializes in delivering insight into complex information ecosystems through innovative approaches, network analysis, and big data. Fisher's CPD research project, "Netwar in Cyberia: Decoding the Media Mujahedeen and the Jihadist Swarmcast," will examine Jihadist media strategy using the military concept of Netwar and assess whether Jihadist strategy has extended beyond Netwar to embrace the potential of collective and emergent behaviors within complex information systems. Through a strategic assessment of the information dissemination systems, "Netwar in Cyberia" will identify factors which could influence the success of public diplomacy responses to Jihadist online content.

Barbora Maronkova is the Program Manager at NATO’s Public Diplomacy Division in Brussels, Belgium. As of 2012, she co-leads the Evaluation and Assessment program for the Division. Maronkova's research project, "From Crawling to Walking: Progress in Evaluating the Effectiveness of Public Diplomacy. Lessons learned from NATO" will share with the wider public diplomacy community the work undertaken by NATO’s Public Diplomacy Division over the past three years in setting up its own measurement and evaluation processes. It will also offer recommendations to other international organizations and national institutions for creating more effective measurement and evaluation.

Emily Metzgar is an associate professor in the Department of Journalism at Indiana University. Her CPD Research project, "Journalism with Purpose: Foreign Policy, Domestic Politics and U.S. International Broadcasting," examines the legislative and policy history behind the establishment of U.S. international broadcasting as both a journalistic undertaking and a foreign policy endeavor and in doing so, sheds light on contemporary debates about the future of U.S. international broadcasting.

About the CPD Research Fellowship Program

In August 2009, the Center launched the research fellowship program designed to support and publicize the work of scholars and practitioners of public diplomacy. Every year, the Center selects three non-resident fellows, each serving a two-year term.

Taunya Atwood; Senior Program Officer for the Community Solutions Program, IREXJeanne Bourghault; President and CEO, Internews
Maria de los Angelos Crummett; Deputy VP, Scholar Exchanges, and Executive Director, CIES, Institute of International Education
Ken Harper; Director of the Newhouse Center for Global Engagement, S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications, Syracuse University

Followed by a US Diplomacy Center Simulation, an Informational Career Fair, and a Maxwell School-sponsored Networking Reception to close the evening.

During the last four years, starting in 2012, The Charhar Institute (China), Clingendael Institute (The Netherlands) and ifa (Germany) - with the generous support by Robert Bosch Stiftung–established a Chinese-European cooperation of think tanks that works on aspects of public diplomacy. This cooperation aims at engaging Chinese and European practitioners, students and scholars to discuss concepts, perceptions and practices of public diplomacy in China and Europe. Through a series of yearly conferences, we sought to carry out scholarly debate on public diplomacy especially in the context of wisdom, culture and the role of cities. This concerted process was held in the spirit of an open and cooperative atmosphere in cities of Beijing, The Hague and Shanghai, respectively.

In the year 2015, the 4th International Public Diplomacy Forum was held in Berlin during 8-9 October. In the run-up to COP21 of the UNFCCC, the Forum focused upon the interrelationship between public diplomacy and Global Public Goods (GPGs). Experts from India, South Korea, Japan and USA also took part. One of the highlights of the Forum was an evening panel discussion on “(Mis)understanding of Climate” with experts from India, China and Europe.

In the course of this Forum the international participants agreed that the world is undergoing historic changes. A sense of community around our shared future is becoming more salient around the world. The global environmental changes have woken us up to the importance of global citizenship. This poses a new challenge to diplomacy.

In terms of the provision of GPGs, we found that there are a number of issue areas where there is convergence in European and Chinese perspectives. There is a similar search for effective solutions to global environmental problems - a specific and urgent interest perceived by both sides. We also point to shared interests in a range of non-traditional security issues, though differences remain, especially concerning state sovereignty.

GPGs, as personal and social rights, should become the new foundations for diplomacy in a globalized world in the digital era. They need to be institutionalized and regulated effectively for cooperation among different stakeholders.

There is no single normative framework for public diplomacy. Instead, China and Europe, from different historical and cultural experiences, recognize the existence of different interpretations of public diplomacy and the varying roles of different stakeholders.

Global public diplomacy requires various forms of new diplomatic tools, including digital, climate and science diplomacy. In this context, there appear obstacles and challenges in developing joint public diplomacy initiatives between Europe and China.

The Chinese participants presented the Belt and Road initiative as a GPG aimed at achieving collaborative modernization. It was recognized, that more understanding and elaboration of this initiative is required. In our quest for new diplomacy for GPGs, social players including think tanks, universities and NGOs have a vital role to play.

Public diplomacy needs more cross-border thinking. There is an apparent benefit in engaging in topics such as transboundary environmental cooperation, non-traditional security issues, the impact of technologies and the emergence of non-state actors.

The participants of the Berlin Forum resolve to continue the concerted process of deliberation between Europe and China and to explore ways and means of enhancing understanding as well as collaborative partnership.

Image from entry, with caption: US patrols are active in the South China Sea, but a more innovative solution is needed.

Excerpt:

After months of increasing concerns about China's land reclamation in the South China Sea, going back to at least May, the United States decision to conduct a patrol within 12 nautical miles of reclaimed Chinese land in the Spratly Islands this week is not surprising. ...

Under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), US naval vessels have certain rights to freedom of navigation, as do all vessels. The US and other countries, including Britain, interpret this freedom to include the innocent passage of warships within the territorial seas of coastal states.

China sees the matter differently, believing that warships should provide notification before passing through another state's territorial sea. ...

[W]hile the probability of a confrontation or collision arising from the patrols is low, in the current geopolitical climate it is not zero. ...

The problem with the patrols is not that they are wrong, but that they are sub-optimal. It would be better to find a way of communicating concern and resolve against China's unilateralism in a way that did not carry risk of military conflict and further militarisation of the dispute. ...

Public diplomacy must be given a role. The fact is that China's educated middle-classes barely acknowledge that there is a dispute in the South China Sea – they believe China's claim is right and unassailable. Public diplomacy has a role to play in at least enlightening the Chinese public to the fact that other claimants believe equally passionately and adamantly in their claims. ...

Then there is the question of Australia's role.

Australia, as has been stated many times, has a legitimate interest in the peace and security of the South China Sea not least for the trade on which our economy depends. Would our diplomats have the courage to engage China's government on the joint production of a YouTube video that, hosted on the Australian Embassy Beijing's website, told the story of the South China Sea from multiple perspectives, including China's? ...

Caitlin Byrne, an assistant professor of international relations and a former CPD Research Fellow (2010-2012), and Jane Johnston, an associate professor of media and communication, both at Bond University in Australia, have published a new article. Their piece, "Wikipedia: Medium and Model of Collaborative Public Diplomacy," appeared in the current edition of The Hague Journal of Diplomacy. The authors, recognizing that “public diplomacy is an inherently social endeavour,” evaluate the role of new media platforms in 21st century communications, focusing specifically on Wikipedia as a forum for co-creation, collaboration, and community engagement. The article takes a case-study approach to Wikipedia, unpacking the social platform in three distinct sections: its organizational structure and pedagogy; its functionality as both a crowd-sourced platform for knowledge and for community relations; and finally, the relevance of Wikipedia for public diplomacy.The article, while noting both the limitations of public diplomacy 2.0, broadly, and Wikipedia, specifically, concludes that Wikipedia “supports the current practice of and aspirations for public diplomacy 2.0,”

A mere 11% of Israelis are satisfied with the government’s performance in foreign relations, while 60% are not satisfied.

Excerpt:

Israelis said that the government’s foreign policy should focus on taking care of security threats (45%); relations with the US (31%); the peace process (31%); public diplomacy and fighting boycotts (26%); and relations with moderate Arab states (20%), the poll found. ...

Thursday, October 29, 2015

A look at a visit and what it means for Washington, Islamabad as well as other regional actors.

uncaptioned image from article

Excerpt:

Pakistan’s Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif just concluded an official visit to Washington. Despite a whole range of issues on which the U.S. and Pakistan do not see eye to eye, they managed to produce a surprisingly positive joint statement that, according to a State Department spokesman, highlighted their “strong and growing relationship.” Kind words helped the visit, but two defined it: Kunduz and China. ...Kunduz showed that the Taliban can achieve large-scale dislocations that can last weeks (and longer, if it were left to the Afghan National Security Forces only). ... The Taliban need to be dealt with not just militarily but politically as well. Whether the unity government has been convinced of that remains to be seen. ...Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s preconditions for a meeting between the Indian and Pakistani national security advisers led to its cancellation. Pakistan’s concerns about Indian influence gained legitimacy and stoked Pakistan’s insecurities: that it was helping create an Afghanistan that was inconsistent with its strategic interests and abetting India’s presence in and relationship with Afghanistan. Pakistan came to see the Indian “threat” as having doubled. ...This dynamic has created challenges for the U.S. policymakers hesitant to wade deeper into an assortment of regional disputes and rivalries. The decision to increase and extend the deployment of U.S. troops may prove unpopular, but President Obama has no more campaigns to run. ... Ultimately, peace cannot take hold without Pakistan’s cooperation. At the same time, instability is not its fault alone—a nuance that is often overlooked and one that has made public diplomacy very difficult. ...

The recent shooting at a historical black church in Charleston, South Carolina, is but one example of an event centered on racism and gun violence that could severely undermine foreign perceptions of Americans. That terrible attack renewed perceptions that Americans have too many guns and have yet to overcome racial tensions. Many international media outlets and foreign governments therefore portrayed the shooting against the backdrop of boiling racial tensions and a national obsession with guns.

How can we possibly change perceptions (i.e., global public opinion) about systemic social issues like racism and gun violence when there will most likely be more attacks and in more cities across our country? It makes little sense to continue investing in reactive messaging. What is needed is to create an ongoing dialogue with foreign audiences so that we can share what Americans are doing to confront these issues in their local communities between attacks.

In an effort to address such problems in their backyard, the South Carolina Human Affairs Commission has focused their energies on establishing Community Relations Councils at the county level to improve relations between South Carolina citizens of all demographic backgrounds. The volunteer organizations work to promote respect and civility, encourage cultural awareness and understanding, evaluate public attitudes, identify issues of concern in the community, and execute a program of action to earn public understanding, awareness and acceptance. Ultimately, the council’s mission is to identify problems at the local level, before they become crisis situations requiring state or federal government intervention.

In recent weeks, local civil society organizations gathered at the Technical College of the Lowcountry in Okatie, SC, for an organizational meeting to establish a new Community Relations Council for Beaufort County, South Carolina. For those unfamiliar with the geography of the state, Beaufort County includes the area between Charleston, SC, and Savannah, GA. In addition to the major population centers of Beaufort, Bluffton, and Hilton Head Island, the county is also composed of hundreds of barrier islands, including St. Helena Island.

As the managing director of the Sea Islands Society, a constituent of the Islands Society, I consider myself fortunate to have been invited to attend the planning meeting as a community agency representative. Why, you may ask, would a nonprofit organization engaged in public diplomacy participate in this sort of local initiative? Americans, and South Carolinians in particular, need to drive home the message that local communities like Beaufort County are not simply accepting these shootings as a fact of life, but are being proactive about trying to confront these issues in a variety of ways. The creation of a Community Relations Council is one small step in that direction.

Participation in this council allows my organization to serve as a good corporate citizen working with others to prevent another attack in our community. We also share a firsthand narrative about what the members of our community are doing to take responsibility for a problem that many foreign communities believe is a stain on our country. In this way, our staff is not only passively helping to resolve an issue that is a problem for American public diplomacy oversea. We are actively helping to change perception of the United States overseas.

Americans and South Carolinians in particular, need to drive home the message that local communities like Beaufort County are not simply accepting these shootings as a fact of life, but are being proactive about trying to confront these issues in a variety of ways.

Involvement with a community relations council is paramount to building new capacities for our staff that we can then share with the interest groups served by other constituent societies (e.g., Pacific Islands Society), thereby transferring knowledge of how U.S. local communities can resolve similar problems. We are able to develop new programs to educate foreigners about how local municipalities in island communities establish a community relations council to improve the quality of life for their own residents. Peoples overseas will be more likely to accept established programs with positive track records in an effort to resolve similar problems in their own local communities.

Additionally, experience with these councils aids in building new capacities for our staff that we can then share with Foreign Service officers through programs designed to educate them on how local communities are working to resolve domestic problems that undermine American public diplomacy overseas.

Involvement in such councils allows representatives, such as our staff, the opportunity to build new relationships within the local community. Armed with this knowledge, they can travel abroad educating Foreign Service officers on what public diplomacy is and what a local group in their community is doing to support public diplomacy. Concurrently, they have the ability to inspire or empower members of the local community not already engaged in public diplomacy or cultural relations overseas (or who aren’t aware they are, such as missionary groups) to become actively involved in U.S. public diplomacy as citizen ambassadors. Imagine the possibilities!

The council works to resolve issues that are problems for the local interest groups that the Sea Islands Society serves (e.g., women, minorities, next generation leaders, and veterans), thus improving the quality of their life. In most cases, councils in counties across South Carolina are composed of approximately 15 members representing various governmental boards, area agencies and support groups. This network of interconnected local service groups is then able to pull their combined knowledge to address concerns in their own community. Once the issue is identified, a community relations council acts as a bridge between local officials and citizens to execute a program of action to earn public understanding, awareness and acceptance. A council may be the key to assuring that fair and proper housing, education, transportation and health services are available to all segments of the population in its community. Especially when tension and conflict are resolved in a crisis situation, life for the entire community is greatly improved.

By their very definition, community relations councils foster better relationships within a diverse community through organized efforts to bring together cross-sections of people and resolve mutual issues of concern. In our community, our council is working to establish a “beloved community.” These councils may ultimately assure that the rest of the state, nation and indeed, the world as a whole will view life in each area of the United States on a much more positive note.

Wednesday, October 28, 2015

The Department of State (DOS) continued its use of student loan repayments in CY 2014, providing more than $11.1 million in student loan repayment benefits to 1,415 employees. Of the CY 2014 recipients, 713 were in civil service positions and 702 were members of the Foreign Service. DOS offered a lump-sum payment of $8,000 or the outstanding loan amount if it was less than $8,000 and greater than $5,000. An eligible DOS employee must have a loan balance of $5,000 or greater in order to receive student loan repayments. DOS provided the most student loan repayments to employees in the civil service positions of Foreign Affairs (244), Passport and Visa Examiner (110), and Management and Program Analysis (109), and members of the Foreign Service serving in Political Affairs (119), Public Diplomacy (116), and Economics (97) positions. ...

When she left Libya to Chris Stevens — without even a phone call — it was just another day in the Clinton State Department.

Image from, with caption: US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton smiles during an arrival ceremony at Rarotonga International Airpoirt in Rarotonga, Cook Islands on August 30, 2012.

Excerpt:

Clinton herself appeared to pay mostly drive-by attention to Libya. Although she was the most-traveled secretary of state ever overall and attended the regular meetings of the Libyan “contact group” (consisting of representatives from 32 countries, the United Nations, European Union, NATO, the League of Arab States, the Organization of the Islamic Cooperation, and the Gulf Cooperation Council), her time in Libya was confined to one trip of several hours to meet with political opposition leaders in October 2011, nearly a year before Stevens’ death.

And while she occasionally involved herself in major, direct negotiations around the world—most notably perhaps in mediating, with then-Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi, an end to the 2012 Hamas-Israel rocket war—much of her tenure was spent on so-called “soft” diplomacy: constant globe-trotting, giving much-touted speeches on issues like women’s rights and Internet freedom and doing nonstop public diplomacy, including what her staff came to call “town-terviews”—regular town-hall meetings abroad to which local citizens and media were invited. ...

The first World Indigenous Games [see also] began on Friday in Palmas, Brazil. The event, which is co-sponsored by the United Nations, has gathered approximately 2,000 athletes from more than 20 countries, including Brazil, Ethiopia, Mongolia, New Zealand and the Philippines, for a 9-day sporting and cultural event. With world indigenous people representing just 0.5% of global population, the Games are an “opportunity to show to the world some of the oldest forms of human civilization,” and to raise global awareness about these tribes and their endangered cultural heritage. Athletes will compete in traditional sports such as bow and arrow shooting, javelin throwing, log racing, and tug-of-war, yet while medals will be awarded, many athletes say they are “competing for the world’s attention to their plight, not just medals.” The video demonstrates the convening power of sports and mega events to both engage global publics in dialogue, and to facilitate cross-cultural interaction, exchanges and understanding among peoples from around the globe.

In order to conduct foreign policy smoothly and effectively, it is essential to promote an understanding of Japan among the general public overseas and to enhance their image of and sense of affinity toward Japan, in addition to appealing directly to policymaking groups in other countries. In recent years in particular, against the backdrop of the dramatic advance of the Internet and other information and communications technology, as well as the progress of democratization around the world, public opinion has a growing influence on foreign policy. Accordingly, many observers have stressed the importance of "public diplomacy" - direct appeals to citizens and public opinion in other countries in cooperation with the private sector.

From this perspective, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan utilizes various public relations tools to provide international audiences with information about Japan's foreign policy and general information on Japan. In cooperation with the Japan Foundation, the Foreign Ministry also makes efforts to introduce traditional culture, pop culture, and other attractions of Japan to other countries, to provide support for the promotion of the Japanese language overseas, and to foster people-to-people exchange with other countries as well as cooperation through such international organizations as the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and the United Nations University.

Lobbying politicians in Australia has not brought them into line with international opinion. A new campaign aims to turn that around, writes Jake Lynch.

image from article, with caption: APAN members

Excerpt:

Australia’s peak Palestine support group, the Australia Palestine Advocacy Network, hasvoted at its Annual General Meetingto “endorse a policy of boycotts, divestment and sanctions (BDS) of Israeli and international institutions complicit in violations of human rights and international law in Israel-Palestine”.

APAN has resisted support for BDS in the past, preferring to concentrate on lobbying politicians, both individually and through parties, and doubtless aware of the demonisation and dirty tricks of the Israel lobby and its rightwing allies that are directed at anyone who actually does anything to uphold Palestinian rights and freedoms, as opposed to merely talking about them. ...

[T]here are myriad BDS targets in Australia because the country is teeming with “institutions complicit in violations of human rights and international law in Israel-Palestine”, to quote the new APAN policy. One of them is the University of Sydney, where phoney Fellowship schemes link with the Technion University of Haifa, and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, both of which are up to their neck in the occupation.

Hence the call by the Sydney Staff for BDS group, which joined APAN this year, to revoke such schemes as a misuse of the University’s good name, and that of scholarly research in general, as part of so-called ‘public diplomacy’ whose aim is reduce pressure from the international community for a change in policy.

Jake Lynch is a member of Sydney Staff for BDS, which affiliates with APAN.

Iran is hosting a three-day conference this week focusing on “police brutality against blacks in America,” according to the event announcement.

Foreign Deskreported that the event’s organizer, Nader Talebzadeh, told an Iranian news outlet that he had extended invitations to the conference to 30 “anti-Israel blacks” from the United States. He said that the conference, beginning Monday, would feature “human rights defenders” and “social activists.”

“Blacks in America are the only group who utilize their right to protest, and Iran is the perfect place to host them and to initiate a direct relationship with this segment of the American population,” Talebzadeh said.

“This will be the start of a relationship based on culture, diplomacy, and revolution. We hope to serve as an international example,” Talebzadeh explained, noting that the treatment of African Americans at the hands of police is important to Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.

Khamenei has previously accused U.S. law enforcement of using “cruel might” against blacks.

“In the U.S. whose president is now a black person, the black people are oppressed, disrespected and humiliated, and such behavior has provided the ground for unrests too,” the supreme leader was quoted as saying in April by the state-controlled Fars news agency.

Talebzadeh labeled the conference the “beginning of a cultural revolution and resistance and an international model for public diplomacy.” ...

Tuesday, October 27, 2015

To many Nigerians, that Mallam Garba Shehu was able to run a superlative media campaign for President Muhammadu Buhari, is an unprecedented feat in the annals of political campaigns in Nigeria.

It is also public knowledge that some global organizations including the US State Department’s Political Communication and Public Diplomacy units are now understudying the media strategies that Mallam Garba Shehu was able to deploy in ensuring favourable media image for President Buhari . ...

NATO’s “Building Integrity” program and its support for the 2007 UN Resolution on Women, Peace and Security are both critical to its crisis prevention and conflict management efforts. The two initiatives have developed a close synergy, trading best practices and sharing expertise. How does public diplomacy help or hinder these efforts?

Stefanie Von Hlatky will provide an update on the Women, Peace and Security program that is spearheaded by NATO, highlight the public diplomacy challenges of crafting messages on gender awareness, and share her analysis of how gender issues were communicated to the Afghan public.

Join Stefanie von Hlatky, assistant professor of political studies at Queen’s University and the Director of the Queen’s Centre for International and Defence Policy (CIDP) as she explores this topic. The discussion will be moderated by Professor Nicholas Cull, Director of the Master of Public Diplomacy program at the USC Annenberg School for Communications.

Professor von Hlatky will be the 2016 Canada-U.S. Fulbright Visiting Research Chair in Public Diplomacy during the Spring semester and will teach in the USC Master of Public Diplomacy program.

Digitalization is here to stay – and so is diplomacy. For governments, reconciling the implications of digitalization with the functional performance of diplomacy is essential to achieving global and national needs. Brian Hocking and Jan Melissen argue that digital diplomacy is more than the application of social media to familiar diplomatic functions, even though the challenge of their use in diplomacy should not be underestimated.

Foreign ministries have no choice but to develop digital strategies if they are to survive. Digitalization will enhance the need for them to redefine their roles and to develop narratives to explain what they are for. The conventional wisdom is that digitalization does not change the fundamental objectives of diplomacy, but offers new ways through which these can be achieved. Governments need to take a more nuanced look: digitalization will put fundamental norms and rules of diplomacy to the test.

Diplomats of all types will need to function in the offline and online environments. Foreign ministries are advised not to respond to the challenges of the digital age by ‘following the herd’. They should not treat digital resources as another form of top-down communication, and define their objectives clearly.

About Me

A Princeton PhD, was a US diplomat for over 20 years, mostly in Eastern Europe, and was promoted to the Senior Foreign Service in 1997. For the Open World Leadership Center, he speaks with
its delegates from Europe/Eurasia on the topic, "E Pluribus Unum? What Keeps the United States United" (http://johnbrownnotesandessays.blogspot.com/2017/03/notes-and-references-for-discussion-e.html). Affiliated with Georgetown University (http://explore.georgetown.edu/people/jhb7/) for over ten years, he still shares ideas with students about public diplomacy.
The papers of his deceased father -- poet and diplomat John L. Brown -- are stored at Georgetown University Special Collections at the Lauinger Library. They are manuscript materials valuable to scholars interested in post-WWII U.S.-European cultural relations.
This blog is dedicated to him, Dr. John L. Brown, a remarkable linguist/humanist who wrote in the Foreign Service Journal (1964) -- years before "soft power" was ever coined -- that "The CAO [Cultural Affairs Officer] soon comes to realize that his job is really a form of love-making and that making love is never really successful unless both partners are participating."